A New Comfortable

Malo soifua!!!

This week went by in a blur. I honestly have no idea how it went so fast, but it did, and now I've only got one more week of the MTC. Oioue.

This week was fairly standard as far as classes and whatnot. I played basketball with my stake district a couple of times, and we had a stake elder lunch on Wednesday.

The biggest highlight of the week was actually in regards to Elder Wilson, the elder in my district called to Auckland, New Zealand. He was the only one in our district who had not gotten a reassignment, and he has citizenship in New Zealand, so we were hoping that maybe he'd get the chance to go to his actual mission. Well this week he got his wish...just not quite how he was expecting. We were in class on Tuesday, the 29th, when Elder Wilson told us he had just gotten an email from the missionary travel department. He was going to fly to Auckland!! The only catch? HE WAS SCHEDULED TO FLY OUT TWO DAYS LATER ON OCTOBER FIRST!!! We were all reeling in shock, but we all gave him emphatic congratulations. He ended up skipping a few classes to pack, and then flew to New Zealand this past Thursday. He got there safely, and he'll still be in our district to finish up the MTC there while in his mandatory two-week quarantine. So yeah, that was the most exciting part of this week, by far. But the rest was pretty good too.

Our doctrinal studies have been really good this past week. We finished our doctrinal study review of Lesson One (The Restoration) in Preach My Gospel, and we started studying and teaching Lesson Two (The Plan of Salvation). We've also focused a lot on listening to others and asking inspired questions to get to know others better as well as teach more effectively.

I had two TRC lessons this week. The first was in English with a young married woman from Utah named Katie. She seemed really interested and engaged in our message, and we had an amazing lesson with her. Our other lesson was a Samoan TRC with Mariah, which I was a little worried about. Elder Brown's and my focus for this lesson was to get to know her better, and establish a more personal connection with her (ask questions, answer questions, etc.). I was nervous because this meant we'd have to do a lot of listening and understanding as well as a lot of spur-of-the-moment responding, which is really hard in a new language. To our delight (and small surprise), the lesson actually went super well! We talked with her for almost 40 min (which is over the limit, but we were having a great time so it's all good). We talked about her and her young family (husband and girl on the way), and just about anything else we knew how to ask in Samoan. By the end we were laughing a lot, and we left a really good message and invitation. My soa and I have one more lesson with her, so hopefully that goes just as well.

Sam Fam Shenanigans: The award for this week's edition of Sam Fam Shenanigans goes to Elder Tenney. In a class with Uso Gardiner, Gardiner's computer unexpectedly died, and he was kicked from the meeting. We didn't know what to do, so we just talked and waited. Elder Wilson was made the host, and he made Elder Tenney co-host, and they were goofing off and having fun with their new powers. Finally, Uso G got his computer back up and running, and he rejoined the meeting and became the host again. The fun began when we realized that Uso G had no idea that Elder Tenney was still a co-host. Elder Tenney began changing people's names, turning people's cameras off, and just kinda making a small nuisance of himself. He was very subtle so Gardiner wouldn't notice, but the rest of us elders were struggling to keep from laughing loudly during class. It was a ton of fun.

We also spent an afternoon in our sam fam group chat listing off all of the amazing things Elder Prince has ever done (imagine Chuck Norris jokes, but even better). Some of the highlights are listed below.

Mafaufauga faaleagaga: Uso Gardiner and Elder Mckrola shared powerful insights that really struck me this week. We were talking about how we as missionaries need to open our mouths and talk to everyone we meet. While he was sharing his thoughts, Elder Mckrola said that we need to step out of our comfort zone and make "a new comfortable" where we want to and feel comfortable sharing the gospel. To further illustrate this point, Uso G had us read in Moses about the prophet Enoch. Enoch asked God why he had been called as a prophet because he wasn't well liked and had trouble speaking. God answered by telling him to go and open his mouth and the Spirit would fill with the words of God. Later on we read about how Enoch's words became so powerful that every nation feared him and the earth itself shook when he spoke with the power of God. Gardiner said to us, "you're gonna be scared. Open you mouth anyway." When you are filled with the Holy Ghost, you will have the words to speak given to you in the very moment you need them, and people will feel of their truth. Of this I want to bear my testimony as a missionary of Jesus Christ.

Alofa tele lava atu

Elder Hill

Photos: (In whatever order they're in)

Elder Wilson Appreciation Post (the guy with the pencil behind his year)

Elder Prince (both to show how hard we were trying not to laugh, and also to give reference for all of our "facts 'bout Prince") (I promise he's not actually that red. The light was just really wack).

A few snippets of our "facts 'bout Prince" (the three hangouts screenshots)

One of my favorite scriptures on one of my favorite pictures